Terrible Towels, sold at Steelers' games and waved at fans during games, were invented by the team's late sportscaster, Myron Cope, whose signature exclamation was, "Yoi!"

Eat 'N Park cookes are cookies with smiley faces sold by Eat 'N Park restaurants, a chain based in western Pennsylvania and Ohio.

President Obama actually is rooting for the Steelers to beat the Arizona Cardinals, and the decision is dictated somewhat by politics. Arizona was the home state of Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee Mr. Obama defeated and whom Mr. Obama has graciously reached out to several times since. But Steelers great Franco Harris and team owner Dan Rooney were big Obama supporters. Plus, winning Pennsylvania helped Mr. Obama end Mr. McCain's hopes pretty early on Election Day.

"I have to say, you know, I wish the Cardinals the best," Mr. Obama told reporters. "Kurt Warner is a great story and he's closer to my age than anybody else on the field, but I am a long-time Steelers fan. Mr. Rooney, the owner, was just an extraordinary supporter during the course of the campaign. Franco Harris was campaigning for me in Pittsburgh…Coach Tomlin was a supporter.

"So I wish the best to the Cardinals. They've been long-suffering; it's a great Cinderella story. But other than the Bears, the Steelers are probably the team that's closest to my heart."

During an appearance at the University of Scranton on Jan. 22, Karl Rove, President George Bush's right-hand man, predicted President Obama won't be able to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected terrorists because finding another place to house them will be impossible, according to the Miami Hurricane, the school's newspaper.

Mr. Obama's order closing the prison "could enable terrorists to be tried in U.S. courts, to be given undeserved rights afforded American citizens and could cause damaging long-term effects, Rove said," according to the newspaper.

"One year from now, Gitmo won’t be closed,” Rove said. “If it is, there will be an uproar in the U.S. about where to put these people.”

U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski voted yesterday against the House version of the economic stimulus plan because the $825 billion plan

– Has too little money for fixing roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

– Has too little help for people who are unemployed or retired.

– Targets too much money to large urban areas rather than more rural regions like northeast Pa.

– Lacks money for local governments. Mr.Kanjorski's attempt to rectify that through an amendment that would revive the 1970s- and 1980s-era general revenue sharing program failed. House Democratic leaders wouldn't even allow consideration of the amendment so Mr. Kanjorski plans to reintroduce the idea as a separate bill.

"In closing, I support a recovery package that creates jobs and builds our infrastructure. Americans and our economy are struggling and we must act to help them," Mr. Kanjorski said in a statement on the House floor. "But, I strongly believe that we can make improvements to this bill so it will be as effective and efficient as possible in restoring our economy and helping Americans."

U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski has formally introduced his plan to revive the federal revenue sharing program that diverted federal tax dollars back to local cities, boroughs and townships in the 1970s and 1980s.

Mr. Kanjorski, the chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, introduced the idea as an amendment to the Democratic House stimulus package.

“As the recovery bill currently stands, very little of the legislation focuses on aid to local governments which face massive deficits that harm needed programs and jobs for residents,” Mr. Kanjorski said in a statement. “For 15 years, a General Revenue Sharing program effectively provided aid to municipalities and counties throughout the country. This program should be a model for a piece of the recovery package to help local governments, just like Luzerne County in Northeastern Pennsylvania, that need funding help now. We must not ignore the problems our communities face, and we have the opportunity to implement a program that has proven results.”

Hello there from Wilmington, Del. After a train trip to Washington for Jim McNulty's party and back to Philadelphia, we spent the night with photographer Butch Comegys' sister, who lives here.

I tried to blog yesterday, but it probably would have helped if I knew the new username and password for signing in to post. Jim called his train the Scranton Express. It was six vintage train cars– three owned by Bennett Levin, a wealthy Philadelphia businessman who restores cars for a living, and three owned by his friends .

Recently, Mr. Levin let injured war vets ride the Pennsylvania car from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital to Philadelphia for the Army-Navy game. John F. Kennedy used one of the cars to travel from Washington to the Army-Navy football game a couple of times as president. One of the other cars was at one time hollowed out and was used to carry Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's body back to Washington after he was assassinated in Los Angeles in June 1968.

Maybe, it was a psychological thing but I never made it back to that car. It's a creepy feeling. Often left unsaid is how many people worry that President Barack Obama will suffer similar harm at some point because of his race. When you think about the Kennedys and all they have meant to Democrats in NEPA, especially in Lackawanna County, that alone made the train ride remarkable.

Jim mentioned something else often left unsaid: when Joe Biden is sworn in tomorrow as the 47th vice president of the United States, he'll be the first Catholic vice president. There's an interesting parallel there with JFK being the first Catholic president, his being so popular in Scranton, and with Joe Biden, a Scranton native, being the first Catholic veep. It probably means there's lots of Catholics in Scranton. Ha-ha. Anyway, unlike with Kennedy, who's Catholicism was a major issue, no one says anything about Biden.

If you read the story about the party in this morning's paper, you know it took place in a banquet room in the Rayburn Office Building, and former NBA basketball player Tom McMillen was there. Great photo by Butch of McNulty, a shrimp, talking to McMillen, who is 7 feet tall, in today's paper. McMillen took off before I got to talk to him.

It never stops amazing me how many people from Scranton there are in other places. I stopped to talk to Tim Gillespie and Jeanne-Marie Murphy, both West Siders and lobbyists. She said she often deals with U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee. You've got to hand it to McNulty: he sure knows how to get attention. Before we left Philadelphia, we watched an impromptu press conference that attracted Philadelphia Daily News columnist Ronnie Polaneczky, who wrote a column about her trip.

I can't seem to get the linker on this thing to work right now, so you'll have to look up the column yourself. He also teased with who might be on the train. Maybe Martin Sheen, maybe Bob Casey, maybe Joe Biden's mom. Well, it didn't work out. None made it. Casey didn't even make it to the party in Washington.

The people at the Amtrak station in Philadelphia looked at us like we’re crazy, but that’s the genius of McNulty: people think he’s nuts but Philadelphians learned all about it in their morning paper today. Jimmy had a Dixieland band, Brass & Ivory, on board. He did get state Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffrey on board.

As a Philadelphia traffic court judge, he used to have hearings for rowdy fans who got themselves arrested right at Veterans Stadium for Philadelphia Eagles football games. State Superior Court Judge Jack Panella, who is looking to move up to the Supreme Court this year, was also there. Jim Connors and his wife, Susie, also made the trip. McNulty said he wouldn't let Connors sing, which brought the usual darn from Connors. All in all, it was a disappointment in terms of generating star power (Biden was a no-show), but as they say, a great time was had by all.

Few of Washington's political commentators are as consistently insightful or on the mark as Charlie Cook, who publishes the Cook Political Report. In his latest column, he explores the dangers to the Republican Party of conservatives pushing the party too far to the right. He uses Arlen Specter as a key example.

The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza takes a look at the 2010 Pennsylvania Senate race in his Sunday column. Don't be fooled, the column starts with the Ohio Senate race, but does eventually get to Pennsylvania.

In her latest column, The New York Times Maureen Dowd defends Caroline Kennedy, who is benefitting from her famous name, as she contemplates being a New York senator. She points out that many others have benefitted from their ancestors' famous names, including Mr. Casey.

Stay up to date on Northeastern Pennsylvania politics with Times-Tribune politics reporter Borys Krawczeniuk (pronounced CROUCH-enyook, that's why we just call him "Borys"). The Borys Blog brings you the news, substantiated gossip, insight and intrigue of the region's unique brand of politics.